Now I've written about dubstep

...which is a sort of dark, minimal hybrid of dub and electronica. Here's my review of Soundboy Punishments, a singles compilation by the London-based producers Shackleton and Appleblim of Skull Disco. It's actually pretty amazing, though way out of my comfort zone, and I'm glad I got the chance to listen to it in depth, especially the Villalobos remix of "Blood on My Hands.""Over the last several years, Shackleton and Appleblim have been running the Skull Disco label, hosting nights at the Forward Club and, cranking out a series of genre-defining 12"s that have defined the darker, more ethnic-tinged experimental edge of dubstep. This two-CD set serves as a summary of their aesthetic so far, collecting 18 of those singles, plus the album-stopping, 18-minute Ricardo Villalobos remix of "Blood on My Hands." Together, these cuts encompass a stark, dreamlike nexus of pre- and post-industrial sounds, hand-drums and camel bells living in the same space as synth washes, explosive blots of bass next to Arabic chants. " More here: http://www.dustedmagazine.com/reviews/3983There's a link in the review to a really interesting radio interview with Shackleton, which I'm repeating right here:http://www.wfmu.org/listen.ram?show=23497&archive=35858&starttime=0:23:55There's a stream in the review. Here are a couple of MP3s, too. Shackleton's "Naked"http://www.beggarsgroupusa.com/mp3/1-08%20Naked.mp3Appleblim's "Mystical Warrior"http://www.beggarsgroupusa.com/mp3/1-04%20Mystical%20Warrior.mp3My internet's running at about 12 KPS right now, some sort of line problem, sorry...no uploads until I can get it fixed. (And I think it has to break down altogether before they'll come out and check it.)